#28 The Offcuts

Coconut trees, aerialists, and books that evoke memories

I’m off tomorrow on a little escape to Euuuurope. I’ll be going from Crete to Athens to Nice to Paris to Bordeaux and spending 6 nights out of 11 on my own. Eeeek. The longest I’ve spent solo was 3 days in Barcelona last year. I’m sure I’ll have many new badges to sew on my sash when I’m home from all the new experiences I’ll get to take away with me. I’m excited to push myself just that little bit further too. Anyway, here’s what didn’t make it to the newsletter this week.

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I started reading Learning To Swim by Clare Chambers this week. I read her book Small Pleasures a couple of summers ago. I vividly remember finishing it while lying on the grass in the Parque de El Retiro in Madrid. It was one of those endings when you hold the book close to your chest after closing the page. Although admittedly I read it on my Kindle but you get the idea. It was maybe 3 weeks before my Dad died. I think of him as a man of small and simple pleasures, and so I thought of him often when reading Small Pleasures. And now that I am thinking of Small Pleasures while reading Learning To Swim I have been thinking of him often this week too. Isn’t it strange how life likes to find little links?

Some other things I’ve read…

'I love my husband...which is why I'm divorcing him’ - guest post by

Lisa Quinn

on

Things Worth Knowing with Farrah Storr

what to do when your friends are boring you to death - by

Yrsa Daley-Ward

on

the utter

‘I wanted my photos to reflect my disorientation’ - how Anastasia Samoylova’s ‘dreamlike images’ have been inspired by the hyperrealism of Florida’s cities
The age of ‘provider women’ - the subversion of patriarchal norms around household labour

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I’m calling it now, we’ll be getting a new Burberry documentary soon. This week they announced some of their new “it” girls, including Lila Moss. It was also announced that among other companies, Burberry will likely leave the FTSE 100 after 15 years in the rankings. Burberry has gone through a number of revivals, rebrands and controversy. They rightly faced immense backlash for burning unsold stock in 2018 and spent years trying to rebuild their “luxury” status when their iconic check print became synonymous with moral panic surrounding the ‘chav’ stereotype around the turn of the 21st century. With slumping sales once again, what’s next for Burberry?

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I was reminded the other day of Lancôme Juicy Tubes. These stupid little lipglosses had me in such a headlock. They came in various shades of pink and smelled sickly sweet. I remember getting one when I was around 17. I’m not sure if I’d saved up for it myself or received it as a much-longed-for present. It was a talisman for the ascent of girlhood to womanhood. They were quietly discontinued in 2018 before going back on sale in 2020. Although I think I’ve made peace with leaving them in my teenage dreams.

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I went to the National Gallery this week, I honestly don’t remember the last time I did. The insurgence of tourists that descend upon Trafalgar Square and surrounding areas, during the summer holiday in particular works very successfully as a deterrent. But I wanted to see Degas & Miss La La. Degas’ ballerinas have always been entrancing to me. My eyes drawn to the fluffy tutus captured in motion. The exhibition had new material and previously unpublished photographic portraits of Miss La La, the circus aerialist from Degas’ painting Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando. I even listened to this when I went:

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I love Lime bikes. But what I hate is walking twenty minutes to try and find a Lime bike only for it to be broken, booked by someone else by the time I get there or invisible to the naked eye from where it appears on the map. Alas, my love for them knows no bounds and I once wrote an imagined interview with Lime bikes. You can read it here.

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You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? No. You didn’t just magically poof onto this Earth out of thin air or arrive here being carried in the mouth of a stork. You’re not alone, and there will always be more that connects us than divides us.